Patient Funds Held in Trust by Chiropractic Physicians
Summary
SB 192 amends Florida’s chiropractic practice law to change how chiropractic physicians may hold patient money and property in trust. The bill removes the existing $1,500 cap on advances for costs and expenses of examination or treatment that may be entrusted to a chiropractic physician for a specific purpose. It keeps the core fiduciary requirements in place: patient funds and property must still be preserved, held in identifiable bank accounts, used only for the intended purpose, accounted for, and promptly returned or delivered when the patient is entitled to receive them.
The bill also preserves existing protections against commingling and misuse of patient funds. Patient money remains unavailable for setoff or counterclaim for chiropractic fees, and disputed portions of funds may not be withdrawn until the dispute is resolved. The effective date is July 1, 2026, meaning chiropractic physicians and their practices will need to comply with the revised trust-account rules beginning then.
Impact
The bill amends section 460.413, Florida Statutes, which governs grounds for disciplinary action against chiropractic physicians, by deleting the statutory limitation on the amount of patient funds that may be held in trust for specified purposes. As a result, chiropractic physicians may accept and hold larger patient advances for examination or treatment costs, while continuing to follow the statute’s accounting, segregation, and prompt-disbursement requirements. The change affects chiropractic physicians, patients who prepay for services, and the Board of Chiropractic Medicine’s enforcement of trust-fund obligations.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have broad support and little visible opposition. It passed every recorded stage unanimously, including Senate committee votes, Senate floor passage, and House third reading, with no recorded nays. That voting pattern suggests the measure was viewed as a straightforward regulatory update rather than a controversial policy change.
Contention
No formal opposition is reflected in the available record, and there are no committee transcripts indicating debate. The only potentially notable policy issue is the removal of the $1,500 cap on patient advances, which could raise concerns in other contexts about larger prepaid amounts being held by practitioners. However, the bill retains the existing trust-account safeguards, which likely reduced any concern about patient protection or misuse of funds.